Headteacher's Blog

Friday 8th January 2016

We have had a really pleasant start to the New Year in school with a number of exciting developments in prospect. One which I will mention now, and on which lots of detail will follow, is the replacement of the school’s Gateway product (virtual learning environment) with a new learning platform called Firefly. As it happens, we have had no choice about implementing this change as the company who provided the Gateway to us has gone into administration. We have nevertheless taken this opportunity to test the market place for the very best products now available and have chosen Firefly as the Gateway’s successor. There is no doubt that Firefly is vastly superior and will offer all the same functions that the Gateway did and so many more. I am certain that every single member of the school community will benefit from this significant improvement. Our changeover date will be 1st February and we will be working over the coming weeks to ensure that teachers, pupils and, of course, parents are able to access and use Firefly for all the crucial things that we need to.

You will see elsewhere in the newsletter reviews of our Christmas concerts; it was really wonderful to enjoy arts productions of this standard at the school. A great many of our young people are currently rehearsing for our production of Romeo and Juliet in a few weeks’ time; the Music department is getting ready to do its part in that and the Art team are preparing the brilliant sets for a Shakespeare production set in 1950’s Brighton. I am sure this will be a creative tour de force.

Year 11 have their mock results day today and I hope that the experience will be a motivating one for the great majority. As parents and teachers, we need to keep reinforcing that very simple relationship between effort in and results achieved. We are very ambitious for the current Year 11 who have been hardworking and a tremendous pleasure to work with so far. Our Sixth Formers are currently doing mocks and assessments and they too have their eyes on the coming exams.

Can I wish all our families a very Happy New Year – I am sure we will all be working together with great enjoyment to achieve success for our young people in 2016.